The Air Force says it has decertified a unit responsible for maintaining an estimated 2,000 nuclear warheads at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, but top military officials won't discuss the decision.

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Decertification means squadron members cannot perform their usual duties with nuclear weapons. Air Force officials won't specify what that means.

Ron Fry, a spokesman for the Air Force Materiel Command in Ohio, said the 898th Munitions Squadron will be re-inspected and could be recertified by June.

Until then, he said qualified individuals from Air Force units based elsewhere will monitor nuclear weapons stored at the New Mexico base.

Heather Wilson used to represent New Mexico in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Wilson said in North Dakota in 2008, some nuclear weapons were put on a plane that was supposed to carry training rounds.

When someone finally noticed, several people lost their jobs, Wilson said.

"People didn't follow their procedures. They didn't pay attention to detail. They didn't do exactly what they were supposed to do. They cut corners and they were inattentive. And you cannot tolerate that in an Air Force unit like this," Wilson said.

She said that was the beginning of the Air Force's new stance on nuclear safety, and that KAFB's decertification is the Air Force dotting its I's and crossing its T's is part of that new stance.

She said the Air Force is basically stopping maintenance to make sure the squadron is complying with the highest standards.

The action involving the 898th Munitions Squadron was requested by Brig. Gen. Everett Thomas, commander of the Nuclear Weapons Center at the New Mexico base.

"If a commander and a leader stands up and says, 'We're not up to par, we're not where we should be, and we're not going to take the test until we're going to pass it with flying colors.This is what I need to fix the problem,' It seems to me that that's evidence of leadership," Wilson said.